I haven't seen one Merlin fanfic with Lily Evans as the protagonist, she is such a great character and J.K. Rowling doesn't really venture into her life outside of the fact that she is James Potters love. That leaves a lot of space for me to work with while keeping everything cannon, for now anyway.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, rights belong to J. and the BBC

—

Prologe

The hallways of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were silent and Lily liked to think that this was because the students of this school knew better than to walk the halls at night. But considering the amount of detentions she had given out in this past year alone that wasn't likely; which brought up the question: Why she hadn't pulled out any couples from broom-closets nor docked any points from figures lurking in the shadows? From past experience as prefect Lily knew that near the start of summer holidays, after the exams the older students especially run rampant through the corridors regardless of curfew. It only made her job harder as she had to check every corridor and spare room while normally she only had to patrol the main corridors.

A small gust of wind made a shiver go up Lily's spine as she turned around a well hidden corner. Lily thought nothing of it and continued her brisk pace, Hogwarts is so full of magic that a small gust of wind is perfectly normal compared to some of the other thing Lily has seen. But what did cause Lily to pause was the flash of light up ahead that pulsed with contained magic. Lily quickly grabbed her wand and held it in a defensive stance as she cautiously approached the growing light. Any normal person would have turned and ran to a professor but Lily wasn't just anybody; she knew that if this magical light continued to grow it would not be for the good of the schools inhabitants. Lily took her duties very seriously and she would protect Hogwarts; her second home; with everything she had. And Lily was a very powerful witch; she knew this. If anyone could deal with whatever this was, it was Lily Evans.

So she crept forwards, sticking to the shadows only pausing to add a silencing charm to her shoes. Fear and uncertainly gripped at her as the magic levels in the air spiked dramatically making that small wind a powerful force whipping Lily's red hair into her face. The strange and powerful light was like nothing she had ever read about before. Surely something of this power and magnitude would have been recorded somewhere in the library. The magic increased again this was obviously something much too powerful for her, this was something only Dumbledore himself could deal with she didn't have the knowledge or experience to correctly guess at what this is. It didn't seem too dangerous, powerful and enticing, yes; but not dangerous. The magic while plentiful didn't seem to be doing any harm other than cause the wind and bright light.

But Lily was a cautious person so she gripped her wand tightly, "Expecto Patronum" a Wild Cat started to form ready to take off the Professor Dumbledore. Before the Cat formed the light shot out in tentacles towards her; the magic seemed to be drawn to her and rushed at her. Lily's eyes barely had time to widen in horror before the magic overtook her form, curling around it and seeping into her skin.

Magic pored into her filling her every cell and filling her magical core to the brim. Screaming; her body practically tearing apart from the overload of magic. Her magical core; the most sensitive part of any creature of the Old Religion; was pulsing and stretching trying in vain to accommodate the influx of magic. The core stretched one more time, more than any of the others, one more and it would tear.

Before that could happen Lily's magic in an attempt to get its host away from this magic, tried to apparate away and out of the castle. This would have worked had it not been for the numerous amounts of wards put in place by not only the Founders but many Headmasters over the past thousand years. These wards made it impossible to apparate on a whim, even with the large amount of power that is now held in Lily's body. So the magic decided if it can't get away from the location maybe it can block the in fluxing magic.

But no, the magic was to much to block while still keeping Lily alive so as one last desperate act of survival flung itself back in time to before the magical light came about; to before the magic in Hogwarts started to build up. To before the school was formed and it was only a castle, a castle which housed a King and a Queen who was about to birth a prince.

Lily's magic sensed that in this particular castle, the magic was healthy; so there was not a chance of a build up of wrongly conducted magic that would be able to create another incident like the one that just happened. So using all of the extra magic of the castle; Lily's magic ripped a pathway for its host to travel through. With a bang the walls seemed to collapse and repair themselves, colours blurred as people rushed past; not that Lily saw this for as soon as the magic stopped flooding her system she passed out in exhaustion.

—-

Chapter 1 - Lily

Lily jerked awake with a groan as her back landed on the hard bluestone. Groaning from the throbbing pain originating in her head she cautiously looked around, only to see trees. Lots of trees. "Merlin," Lily exclaimed, "what happened to me?"

She had been doing her nightly patrols, as was her duty at prefect. Lily had in fact never come across anything more dangerous then a couple of teenagers conducting mischief in the cover of darkness. Coming across a magical hotspot had not been on her agenda of the night.

In all her time at Hogwarts she had never even read about such a thing occurring in Hogwarts let alone anywhere else. 'It must have been a very powerful spell that someone cast wrong - or a very powerful ritual,' a little voice whispered in the depths of her mind.

But no, with Dumbledore around no one would dare cast something so dark, so illegal, so enticingly powerful. 'Although,' Lily pushed such thoughts back, 'there were some who would.'

Indeed there had been whispers throughout the castle about a gathering force, one who gathered like minded wizards, those who held no love for muggles, such as the Slytherins who came from dark, rich and pure families. Some disregarded the rumours, not noticing such purebloods and even some halfbloods getting more confident, excited as if anticipating a time when they would be as superior as they led themselves to be. Superior over people who held the blood of juggles, people such as Lily.

It was entirely ridiculous because anyone who new Lily could tell that she was hardly inferior to anyone. With her striking looks, her blood red hair and eyes, the same colour as death; even her looks alone could make anyone envious. Lily however had something much more powerful; her mind. Top of the class and delving into powerful magic both forgotten and new, Lily was a force to be reckoned with.

This was why the signs did not pass unnoticed by Lily. In fact, she knew exactly what was happening. Such signs could be seen in the pages of many books; books that told of a time before Grindelward became a known name. Lily was witnessing the rise of a Dark Lord.

This did not bare well for Lily's current predicament. If she had accidentally stumbled into a Dark Lords plan… She was couldn't face a Dark Lord! 'Maybe Dumbledore would come save her,' looking at the unrecognisable trees surrounding her again, she considered, 'or maybe not.'

No one would notice her missing for a while.

—

After walking in what seemed like circles for over three hours, Lily finally admitted to herself that some upcoming Dark Lord had nothing to do with this. There was absolutely no point in getting a Muggleborn witch lost in some random forest. It was much more likely to be Potter and Black's idea of a prank.

They had probably found a spell they didn't understand in the library and it went awfully wrong. Lily may detest the two Gryfindors, but they wouldn't purposely harm her. Especially with dark magic.

It had definitely been dark magic, that she could be at least sure of. Only dark magic could have such power to transport her out of Hogwarts seemingly impenetrable wards. Not to mention the effect the magic had on Lily herself.

For the past few hours she hadn't even attempted to use her wand, the first time she had even touched it her magic recoiled, ready to strike. Lily had never dropped something so quickly. After that she made sure that no bare skin touched it, gently picking it up with her cloak to place it in her leather holster at her waist where it was assured not to come loose and touch her.

To have her faithful wand to spark such a reaction in her magic caused a copious amount of distress in the young witch. Lily's wand wasn't the only thing effected by the faulty magic she had disrupted, although she had only noticed it after the incident with her wand. After stumbling across the, for lack of better word; portal, her magic itself had started pulsing as if testing its boundaries causing her entire body to ache.

She had been very aware of how vulnerable she was unable to use her wand, and after walking for so long without food or drink her body was now protesting walking even one more step.

Her inner musings were interrupted by the steady beat of hoofs on the ground. Looking up Lily vaguely noted that she was now slumped against an old oak, just in time to see what looked like Gryffindor knights on horses before she passed out once more.

—

Lily's eyes fluttered open to find herself on a horse surrounded by the knights. "What in Merlin's name…"

"I see you are awake, Milady." The knight behind her spoke "May I ask what bought you to venture into the depths of the Darkling Woods? It is not safe for a young lady to be by herself, you are quite lucky to have been found by my party and not the bandits that inhabit the area."

'What?' Lily seemed to stuck in a cycle of disbelief. 'Knights, bandits, and why were they addressing her as a Lady? What was going on?' All of her previous speculations of what happened to her seemed to be disappearing, as this was certainly not a situation she could have expected.

Actually Lily couldn't even think of one reasonable explanation for her to be on a horse with a knight. It could be a hallucination, a dream, a prank, even a muggle fair. One thing was certain it was a threat to Lily's sanity. It was probably best she stick to questions that could be answered.

"Where am I?" Lily asked.

"We are riding to the citadel, Milady." Replied the knight behind her. "What is your name?"

"Lily, Lily Evans."

"Well Lady Lily, you are safe now." That did not reassure her, nor answer any questions.

"Forgive me for asking, but how do I know I can trust you to protect me from harm when I don't even know who any of you are?"

A knight to her left replied this time. "We are knights of Camelot, the noblest and most talented knights of the land."

He seemed shocked that I didn't know this, but I stopped listening after one word; Camelot.

—

Please review so I can see if people are interested in me continuing this story, I have an idea of a trilogy that would be based before Merlin, Marauders Era and during OotP. Let me know.

xoxo Living Dreams